


Weakness

by ZoeBug



Category: Artemis Fowl - Eoin Colfer
Genre: Character Study, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-08
Updated: 2013-12-08
Packaged: 2018-01-03 23:46:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1074467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZoeBug/pseuds/ZoeBug
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>His intelligence can be rivaled by nearly no being above or below the earth. His plans have no faults—his logic no flaws. For this reason, Artemis Fowl seems invincible.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Weakness

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on fanfiction.net in Feb 2012. A bit of Artemis character study in relation to how he has grown because of Holly.

To those who know do not know him, Artemis Fowl seems a concrete figure—infallible.

When Artemis puts his mind to something, rest assured that it will come about in one form or another—perhaps not in the way one would have imagined, but the end result is always of Artemis’s calculating.

To friends and enemies alike he seems almost more than human: a superior being.

What lies behind the knowing smile, the polite Irish-accented tone, and piercing blue eyes no one besides Artemis himself is quite capable of comprehending. His intelligence can be rivaled by nearly no being above or below the earth.

His plans have no faults—his logic no flaws.

For this reason, Artemis Fowl seems invincible.

But Holly Short knows of Artemis Fowl.

 She knows him better than he sometimes knows himself. Holly Short understands Artemis. She is not Artemis, nor his equal in intellect or interest or status or anything similar. She is more than that. She is more because she has watched Artemis through his years and through his adventures and nearly died with him, making snarky remarks at him all the while.

Because of this, she sees what others do not.

Some see Artemis as a genius. Others as a nuisance, others as a rival.

But the thing that makes Holly Short not “some” or “others” is that she doesn’t see Artemis as any of these things: not a genius, or a nuisance, or a rival. Holly sees him as he is.

And that is his one and only Achilles Heel.

Holly knows that he was a twelve year old boy who missed his father and did everything he could to get him home. She knows that Artemis just wanted to prove to the world that he is worthy of their merit and respect. She knows his is just a human boy who is not like all the other humans she has met in her day with whom she has accidentally switched an eye. A boy she knows who feels and gets scared and is so, so marvelously brave when it really counts.

And because of this she sees right through Artemis Fowl.

She is the only one who truly sees through his masks and his aliases and his doctorates and his computer code and his family’s money. And because of that she holds such sway over him he is terrified.

Artemis Fowl, before he met Holly Short was barely eleven. His weakness was power. He wanted to prove it and he wanted the world to know he was capable of taking it whatever means necessary.

But now, nearly six years later, Artemis doesn’t want power anymore.

He wants adventure. The ones he had with Holly. He wants to live and nearly die and escape from evil fairies by the skin of his teeth using only his intellect and Holly’s sharp shooting and at the end, they will laugh together and fly down the magma pipes back to Haven and he will argue with Foaly about the centaur’s latest innovation for the LEP officers and Holly will smirk proudly in the corner while she cleans her Neutrino.

That is Artemis Fowl’s weakness now.

He wants now, not to prove to the world, but to Holly his worth. That he is still capable of more adventures.

Because he is not infallible, as many think, not concrete.

He is not mysterious and unknowable.

Not to Holly, anyway,

He cannot always make happen all he puts his mind to.

His plans have faults, his logic has flaws.

Because Artemis Fowl is only as invincible as the elf standing next to him.

**Author's Note:**

> [fanfic/podfic blog](http://zoe-bug.tumblr.com/) | [personal](http://xiexiecaptain.tumblr.com/) | [twitter](https://twitter.com/xiexiecaptain)


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